In a new interview with former Arkane Austin lead Harvey Smith, the legendary game designer talks about his "shock" in learning that the team behind Dishonored and Prey was being closed down by Microsoft following the poor launch of co-op shooter Redfall.
Speaking on an episode of the My Perfect Console podcast (via Kotaku), Smith said that Arkane had done "really good work" in the past, and that he was left in "shock" when learning that Xbox was shuttering the studio in May 2024. "Creative efforts are unpredictable", he added:
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"Every company makes the decisions they make for the reason they make them, [...] I don’t agree with them often, but the main shock there was this studio made Dishonored, along with the Lyon studio, and then they made Prey. Then we were working on Redfall during the pandemic and everything else. The industry [was] exploring games-as-a-service games. It is what it is. Creative efforts are unpredictable."
Just over a year ago, one of Arkane's founders — Raphael Colantonio — was a little more outspoken about the closure of the studio's Austin branch; going as far as saying the move was "stupid" and "not a good decision" by Microsoft. Smith may be a little more polite and understanding here, then, but there was still some shock surrounding the sudden shutdown back in 2024.
In our most recent Redfall story here at Pure Xbox, we covered the fact that one fan had finally received a physical refund for the game's cancelled DLC in 2025, more than a year after its final update. It's sure been an interesting road for Redfall, huh.